Demona and MacBeth, Part Two: Together
by RogueDragon and Nebulan
Summary: Author: Nebulan.. Sequel to ...Part One: Alone. Violence has errupted amoung the Children of Oberon, much of which is directed at gargoyles all over the world and the newly weds Demona and MacBeth fear that their marriage may be part a magical plot.
1. Married Life

_**Togther Chapter 1: Married Life**_

A blast came between the married couple. Both rolled over and instinctively pulled out their iron weapons they just happened to be carrying. They started firing at the source of the blast and with instincts instilled with them over the centuries. It was a hot September day and the twosome had gotten together for lunch when they were interrupted. They fired at the squat, greenish-purple, with-a-slight-moustache female fae which started attacking them, unprovoked, which didn't surprise the them anymore. The two were slowly retreating, moving behind different blockades while firing at the magical creature. At a break in the fire, the wife moved behind the same blockade as her husband.

"So," she panted and said in an angry voice (that is assuming it has been determined there is a time when she doesn't sound angry), "what do you think?" she asked, sensing his confusion.

"Hmm," the husband thought as he reloaded, "naither of us are gargoyles, even if ye aire in at night...But they never attacked the gargoyles during the day before." He finished loading the iron into his gun, turn around the corner of the truck and fired at the witch. He caught a blast of magic in the shoulder, the pain he bore, the couple shared.

"That doesn't explain why they attack you." The wife took her turn shooting at the creature until she, too, ran out of ammo.

"Maybe, 'tis because I am magically linked to a gargoyle?" The husband suggested as he handed his spouse iron bullets.

"You know, they never attacked gargoyles in the past so openly or so often."

"What about yer friend Puck, would he know what his siblings are after?"

"I do believe he associates with Goliath's clan these days."

"Well, than perhaps I should pay them a visit, hmm?" His wife gave a sneer of confusion of why he would suggest such a thing. "They hate you, remember, not me." Her look at that moment suggested 'whatever' and both turned at the same time to start blasting the fae with all they had, hoping to weaken her but soon took cover again.

MacBeth jumped out from behind his defense and fired several rounds and was immediately blasted down by magic. His partner, shortly later, blasted the fae away from her husband.

"Why'd you do that!" His wife shouted, upset from the pain he caused her.

"Where were _you_?"

"Hey! I can sense your feelings, not read your mind!"

The battle started to get repetitious, the humans would injure the fae but her magic would help her quickly recover, then she would respond with injuring one of the linked pair, an injury they would quickly recover from.

"If they are attacking you because we are linked, wouldn't they know they can't kill us?" The woman asked when the duo was back behind the same defense again.

"Maybe we should carry iron chains with us as well as iron based weapons and of course our laser weapons." He answered her question. She growled at him for not paying attention to her, so he growled back, "look, we don't know what their motive is, we have been trying to figure that out since May." He nodded to his wife and they both they turned around to fire at the green-purple woman, but she was gone.

"Eh," the human-gargoyle sounded disappointed. They both kept their weapons ready and searched for the ugly Child of Oberon. They eventually gave up looking for her, went back to their home and reloaded on their iron.

MacBeth sat at his desk in at the front corner of his room, finishing up some last minute details before classes began. The school was small for being in such a high populated area of New York. Maybe it was just the class of 2005 that was small, because MacBeth knew their faces, many of their names; he knew the honors half of the class fairly well. The warning bell rang, his students slowly began to filter into the room. He recognized all of the students so far that walked in. They were all seniors, he had taught them as Juniors the year before. In some ways he considered these students friends, he at least got along with most, he could tease some and they could tease him.

The rest of the class filtered in as the final bell was ringing. You don't mark tardies on the first day. Besides, the ones that were late were unfamiliar faces to the teacher who had been working at the school since 1999, so were most likely new to the school.

"Welcome back." MacBeth began the class. "This, as ye know this is Advanced Placement European History. 'Tis not going to be an easy class. The curriculum will be focused on what will most likely be on the AP Exam. Study hard and you will do well on the exam and get credit for this class, if you don't work hard, well, then this was a waste of a class. But I know you well enough, I wouldn't have let you take this class if I didn't think you will work. For those of you who don't know me, I am Lennox MacDuff. I have a Master's Degree in History, I spend my free time studying King Arthur and other folklore and legends." That was about the extent of what he could think on that he could tell the class about without arising suspicion. "As last year, I will let you sit where you want, but I reserve the right to sit you where I want when I feel necessary." There was a quick shifting of seats for a few students. "And to make things easier," MacBeth approached two boys in their seats, "Adrian, Travis, I don't want you sitting anywhere near each other." There was a chuckle over the class and the good friends moved away from each other. "Chelsea, Sarah, you too. And Sarah, don't move next to your boyfriend, Justin, I actually want you to pay attention during class."

As they moved, the class went into a small chatter as MacBeth turned to the board and wrote some numbers. A few of the students recognized the numbers and groaned in disagreement. "Later on in class," MacBeth said over the murmur, "I will start into the introduction of the class. And yes, the numbers on the board are your first homework assignment. Read those pages tonight please." Many of the kids wrote the numbers down in their assignment books, some wrote them down straight into their text books, which were owned by the state of New York, not by the students.

"I went to California this summer," Adrian shouted out. MacBeth went ahead and let the first day be a little rowdy, they weren't going to have another day like this for a while.

"What did you do this summer Mr. MacDuff?" Trisha asked.

"What is your real name? One of these days we're going to figure it out," Justin blurted.

Answering Trisha's question and not Justin's, MacBeth started, "Well, I went to Scotland, Japan, India, Egypt, Italy, Germany..."

"You can't afford that on a teacher's salary!" Travis complained.

"Travis, do you really think that all I do in my spare time is study legends and correct papers?" Maybe another reason the students like MacBeth is because of how mysterious he was.

"Ooh, a secret agenda," one boy teased, "nothing too… illegal I hope."

To change the subject the teacher added, "I also got married."

"At your age!" one boy said shocked. Many of the girls, though, responded with noises that often referred to such things as babies and small fuzzy animals. "What's her name?" One of the girls asked. "It is a 'her' right?" a boy in the front row teased. MacBeth flicked his hand in the boy's direction.

"Her name is Dominique Destine. She kept her last name."

"Of course, how dorky of a name is 'MacDuff'!" Justin kept his argument going. MacBeth decided that now was a good time to get started into the curriculum.

MacBeth arrived at his home around four. He went to sleep and woke when Demona returned home with a frozen pizza. She started heating the oven while MacBeth sat at the dining room table working on the lessons for later in the week. Demona grabbed herself a coke and sat at the other end of the long, elegant table.

"And how was the first day of school?" She propped her legs up on the table.

"'Twent fairly well, first period was a little chaotic… I'll need to work on that."

"First period, that's that class of seniors you know pretty well, right?"

A beep came from the kitchen, the oven was heated. Demona's face tightened as if to say she didn't want to move from her comfortable position.

"I'll take care of it." MacBeth grabbed a coke after he put the pizza in the oven and set the timer. He came back and pulled up a chair right next to Demona "Enough about me, How are things at NightStone Unlimited?"

"Well, I think I'm finally starting to settle in the smaller office."

"Smaller? 'Tis perhaps a whole floor of that office building! Well, I suppose that is smaller."

"I actually like it better. It's good to have my office away from where I live... I haven't completed the secret rooms yet, I thought maybe you could help me with that on the weekend?" He nodded and then put his elbow on the back of her chair and ran his fingers along her face. "I had a few interviews today."

"The ones that were seeking funding?"

"Yes, they want to fund gargoyles research. There are some that want to study the history of gargoyles, others that want to compare their anatomy to humans. There was one group that wanted to do autopsies on gargoyles that died but I had to explain to them that gargoyles turn to stone when they die. I don't have a lot of patience for some humans."

"Um-Hm," He said as he admired her hair and face features with his fingers. Demona was starting to get used to how sometimes MacBeth sounded as if he wasn't paying attention to what she was saying, but she soon learned he was.

"The research would have to be done on the outside of live gargoyles, gargoyles that volunteer for it. I don't know if I'm going to fund any of that, but I have to admit, I am curious, a comparative study of humans and gargoyles." The gargoyle said to her human companion.

"Or we could do our own study." He said as he studied her.

"Or not, doctor." She gave him an evil glare and waved his hand away. "I think I will arrange to have Savarius' notes on gargoyles… stolen..."

"I think I can help with that." MacBeth gave her an evil glare.

"Since Savarius had done some studies of gargoyle genetics, seeing as he helped me and Thailog create the clone clan, I'd like to see what he had to say about gargoyle genetics."

"It shouldn't be hard to find some geneticists that would gladly do the gargoyle/ human comparisons, but be careful that we don't end up with another Savarius. What do you want to know?"

"We should probably keep some copies for ourselves, I suppose it would be interesting..." Demona was silent.

"Why do you what humans to learn more about gargoyle's anyway?"

"Oh, I guess just to prove our superiority."

"Aye, of course, human scientists are going to admit to gargoyle superiority."

Demona just pushed MacBeth away, got up and went to get the pizza out of the oven. When she got back, MacBeth stood up and caught her arm that wasn't holding the pizza and kissed her, which was dangerous, seeing as she was holding a hot pizza... They decided to eat the pizza on a couch in front of a TV instead of at the elegant table.

Parent Teacher Conference. MacBeth had to stay after school until nearly seven talking to parents of students that were struggling in his various classes. This annoyed Demona because she was hoping he would come over to her office and help her set up the systems. But she agreed to pick him up from work anyway. MacBeth stepped out of the school, looked up and realized that he and his wife had failed agreed on a place to meet. He paced around a bit before he started to go back into the building to climb to the roof. Before he reached the door, Demona flew down and picked him up.

"Good evening," MacBeth said to the gargoyle, "where were you,"

"Looking for you." she responded and she started for her office. Ahead of them they saw a police road block. If they had driven to Demona's office, they wouldn't have been able to get to it for the streets were all cut off, not that it mattered… they didn't even own a car. They decided to approach with caution.

A blast of purple light gave away the problem. Goliath's clan of gargoyles had a fairy surrounded. "Another fae?" Demona's eyes lit red and she pondered her next move.

"We better help!" MacBeth volunteered the two. "Why do they continue to attack? The only pattern in their attacks are that they seem to want to kill gargoyles. I fail to see their purpose."

"I don't think they've succeeded either," Demona landed near the battle but out of the way. "Do you have any iron?"

"No, I was in school, remember?" MacBeth said.

"There's some in my office, but the height of the battle seems to be taking place there." They stopped for a second to watch the battle. The fae was an incredibly skinny and long magical creature with long white hair.

Xanatos has supplied the gargoyles with iron weapons and also fought himself in his iron clan suit. The duo watched and waited for an opening. They watched as Goliath was blasted and he fell towards the ground. MacBeth could hear Demona grunt with delight.

"Hey," MacBeth delayed, "why don't you have any iron?"

"Here," Demona handed him some keys and pulled his laser of our his suit coat (the things he brings into a public school…). "I haven't installed the way to open my office from the outside yet, you'll find some iron inside. And it would be best if you kept out of sight too, because I'm going out in the middle of this."

"What?" MacBeth questioned her motive, "trying to impress your daughter still?"

"Hey, If I'm going to help my daughter's clan, I might as well announce it! And I'd really rather they didn't see us together."

MacBeth grumbled and entered the office complex like a normal human while Demona drew the fae's attention with the laser gun.

Several of the gargoyles were down and their spouses/girl/boyfriend were chasing after their falling lovers, caring more about them than the battle. Goliath was about ready to make one of his suicide attempts that he thinks he can always get out of because he's the main character and therefore always is the one to save the day, but Demona interfered with his heroic efforts, yanked Goliath's small iron weapon from his hand.

"Demona!" Goliath said in an angry voice as if to blame her for all of the problems in the world. She responded by giving him a nasty kick, knocking him off balance and out of the air. He plunged to the ground but Demona knew that wouldn't kill him, his suicide attempts, now that will kill him. She jammed the iron weapon into the end of her laser gun and shot it at the fae, disorienting him as other gargoyles came to draw energy from him.

As MacBeth opened Demona's office window, he noticed that several of his students had just exited a mall down below (obviously being in the mall long before the battle and clueless about the entire happenings of the world around them). The skinny fae blasted at a gargoyle and hit part of the building in the process. The rumble was about to fall on MacBeth's awe captivated students. He was already rushing down to save them. He quickly pushed them quickly to safety, but in doing so, he caught the fae's attention, almost as if he was looking for him in the first place. The magical being immediately ignored the gargoyles around him and shot a spell at MacBeth that captivated and stunned him. Demona, seeing what was happening, rushed to save her husband, forgetting for her desire to concealing their relationship. He looked like he was in agonizing pain but, surprisingly, Demona felt none of it. The spell lifted MacBeth off of the ground and suddenly dropped him.

"MacBeth?" Demona cried. The students looked at the fallen body in horror and confusion as a blue gargoyle came up to him and started calling him a name other than Lennox MacDuff. Demona gave out a cat screech. "MacBeth, get up!" She ordered.

The duo hadn't noticed it but the fae had disappeared and the other gargoyles were cleaning up but hadn't noticed MacBeth, except Angela. Fortunately for them, she already knew of their marriage and she descended on he couple.

"Come on Mother," she said gently to the angry gargoyle. The sound of sirens approached and she knew that the humans would take care of him. Demona refused to leave his side and pulled angrily away from Angela's motioning. "Come on," she said gently again and this time Demona obeyed. Angela escorted her back to MacBeth's castle. Angela set her mother down on the roof and stayed a bit incase her mother wanted to talk. Demona said nothing; she seemed deep in thought.

Finally the daughter said, "Mother, what is it, I've never seen you like this."

Demona just stared and finally said, "I felt nothing, nothing." Angela just waited quietly. "It's...it's almost as if, after so long of hating that spell, just when I wanted, it went away." Her eyes went red and angry.

"Mother..."

Demona grunted, "I never was a mother to you."

"Mother, it's not your fault, he's going to come out of this." They sat quietly for a while but Angela stayed a little longer until dawn was approaching.

"You better get home before they send out the entire clan, Xanatos' minions and half the city of New York looking for you."

Angela smiled gently, "alright, but I do want you to know before I leave, I haven't had the chance to tell you before because we haven't talked much but my egg..." Demona perked up at this, "it's due to hatch soon, I want you to see your grandchild." Demona just stared in thought as Angela said good bye, "see you Mother, I'll try to stop by tomorrow to see how MacBeth's doing." Demona smiled, it was nice to have some good news.

"Hello, I'm Mr. MacDuff's wife, can I see him?" Demona said in attempted politeness at first morning light. The receptionist gave Demona directions to MacBeth's room. Apparently he was on a high level as far as his injuries were concerned but not too high he couldn't have visitors. The nurse told Demona that he had been in and out of comas. She looked down on the sleeping man.

"It's amazing how I never thought I'd see you like this." she said to him. She ran her hand down his arm to a bandage that covered some wound. She pressed it; she felt pain on the same part of her own arm. That pain sent a feeling of relief and assured her everything would be alright.

On her way out, she met Elisa in the elevator. "Hello." Demona sarcastically greeted her enemy. Elisa smiled equally sarcastically. "Who are you visiting detective?"

"That's confidential." After an uncomfortable pause as they waited for the elevator to come to the right floor Elisa added, "and who are you seeing?"

"That's confidential."

After Elisa found the right floor, she came in to find MacBeth waking from his unconscious state. They talked briefly about the battle but MacBeth was too weary and told her he'd discuss it with the clan when he was better. After the detective left, MacBeth's four students he had saved at the mall came in. They were Justin and Travis and their girlfriends Sarah and Samantha.

"Hi Mr. MacDuff," they greeted him gently, which was unusual, but they were serious this once. MacBeth smiled. To lighten the mood he started to tease them.

"Wa-What were you doing at that battle? Don't you know to stay away from those situations?"

"What were you doing there?" Sarah smiled.

"Is this part of your 'other' life?" Travis teased.

"Now we know why you are always on the gargoyle's side when we discuss that subject in class," Samantha said, "it seems you've got a lot of gargoyle friends." The kids were particularly curious about the blue one but didn't ask. MacBeth just smiled, tired. "I'd rather you didn't spread this around school." The kids nodded in agreement.

"We better let him rest," Justin said. As the kids were leaving he added, "While we're keeping secrets, that one gargoyle called you 'MacBeth', what is your real name?"

"MacBeth." He said.

"Lennox MacBeth?"

"No, just MacBeth." The kids smiled and left, this just added to the mystery of their teacher.

That night Demona received a phone call from the school. It seemed they were running short of substitutes and resorted to asking family members to sub for absent teachers. Demona consented knowing that she could probably figure out what MacBeth was teaching and knew that was what he would have wanted.

"Hello," she entered first period, "I'm your sub for today, Ms. Destine, Mr. MacDuff's wife, I'm not a trained substituted but I'll tell you to do your work and make sure you don't cause trouble."

"Is Mr. MacDuff ok?" Students asked before class, once the girls started asking about how they met and what they did last summer she pointed to the pages in the book they need to read and answer questions from. "When you are done with your reading, work on your debate? I'm assuming you know what that means." And so the next couple days Demona covered MacBeth's classes, mostly just keeping them busy with book work and then after school going to the hospital to visit MacBeth, who was slowly recovering. Then at night she would keep up NightStone, you know, buying stock for pro-gargoyle companies, trying to throw off other stocks for the sheer amusement of it, checking out what magical or illegal items were available on the web and so on.

"Today you were scheduled to do your class debate, is that right?" Ms. Destine addressed the class, "but today you will just do a practice debate, your teacher should be back at school the beginning of next week."

The topic of discussion was gargoyles, big surprise. Demona tried very hard not to give an impression that she was biased in any way, which was very difficult for her. There were several students for each side, several witnesses and a jury, the teacher was to be judge. They presented opening arguments. The legal issue was whether or not gargoyle's should be offered citizenship. Demona basically didn't let the sides get very far in either of their arguments but instead continuously pointed holes in both.

"Armond, you are saying that these sentient beings should not be treated equal because they are not equal, it's a human government, only human's should have citizenship. Well, you know that it was once a white government but they eventually let blacks be citizen, sounds terribly racist." She said harshly. "And you guys, you say that anyone should be allowed to be citizens, what about the third species, faes? I'm sure you've seen the news about the gargoyles all over have been having problems with magically creatures, do you think they should be part of the U.S. too?"

One night when Demona came home and finished correcting the quizzes she had given based on the reading assignments she had been giving them, she found a chance to relax and went out to sit on the roof. She became particularly fond of MacBeth's mansion because it reminded her of the castle she had grown up in so long ago and helped her feel like herself again after posing all day as a human. She laughed at how peculiar she felt teaching humans. She was doing it all because of the love that she felt for MacBeth. That in itself was an amusing paradox. Sitting on that roof, she started to question her identity. It seemed almost unreal, how could things have changed so much in such a short time? Was she under a spell? Or was she being herself? Who was she? She was still the selfish gargoyle she had always been and hungry for love and friendship. She found someone she had a great deal in common with and yet were complete opposites. It's not as if she didn't have these honorable good qualities in her, it's just that for some reason MacBeth found a way to bring them out in her, as he had for 37 years long ago after they first met. He had also forced honor out of her the first time she met MacBeth when he just a boy, she found herself saving a boy she didn't know instead of getting her revenge, something that had always been important to her more than anything, except, for some reason, that once. She smiled at this thought, that is why she loved him, she was glad she didn't let him die.

Demona noticed a dark familiar figure starting up the path to the house. Exceedingly please at such a sight, she flew down and pick him up and carried him home.

"They let you out already?"

"Aye, they told me I was healthy, they couldn't explain my accelerated recovery." Demona just laughed. "'Tis not all, ye should have been there when I tried to explain why I do not have any health insurance. They dinna care anymore when I paid them in cash."

MacBeth entered the Eyrie Building lobby one night about a week later. It was the first chance he had after recovering and getting things back in place with his classes after being out for a couple weeks.

"Hello, I'd like to see Mr. Xanatos or Mr. Burnett." MacBeth knew he could not ask the receptionist to see the gargoyles because of this still lingering hatred towards them, and he didn't even know if the receptionist knew about the gargoyles. Owen Burnett met MacBeth a few minutes later and led him to the Castle Wyvern on the top of the mansion.

Goliath, Elisa, Hudson, and Xanatos were talking on the balcony. Apparently Brooklyn, Patch, Bronx, Lexington and Liberty were out on rounds about the city, the rest of clan were probably about the castle.

"Ah, MacBeth," the old gargoyle greeted, "glad to see ye up and out of that hospital."

"Yes," Elisa said, "It's good to see you, how were you hurt in the first place?"

"I really don understand how that happened, I dinna know that the Wyrd Sister's spell on me could be affected by another spell, believe me, being suicidal for many centuries, I tried to find one." MacBeth said.

"Why are these faes attacking us?" The smart and all important leader Goliath interjected. "I thought we settled our score with Oberon, I thought Titania was on our side?"

"Well, Titania is on _my_ side anyway," Xanatos added, "but I'm human, the fae's attacks seem to be primarily directed at gargoyles." Xanatos went to the intercom and called his best friend Owen to come back to the roof.

"All I know is that I've seen many of these attacks over the last year or so, battling Eris, I saw attacks on Roman gargoyles during the summer and periodic other attacks. But the battle was never during the day."

"That only proves that they have some honor," Hudson added, "not to attack helpless gargoyles."

"But that doesn't explain why he attacked you." Elisa questioned.

"This is not the first time, I have been, in fact, attacked, even during the day, and I can sense that Demona has been attacked during the day as well."

"But why?" Goliath asked an in-depth question.

"All I can suggest is that I'm magically linked to a gargoyle."

Owen enters the scene closely followed by his pre-teen apprentice. "Ah, Owen," Xanatos addressed him, "can you add anything to this discussion on the reason the faes are attacking the gargoyles?"

"Like I said before, sir, I have no communication with my siblings on Avalon due to my banishment."

"I don't understand, they haven't accomplished their goal," Elisa spoke what was on her deep-in-thought mind, "they've never killed any gargoyles, as far as we know, and any injuries caused them usually heal over day, what's the point?"

"Perhaps they are trying to persuade the gargoyles into something?" Suggested Xanatos. Angela came out to listen to the discussion.

"Or the humans?" MacBeth stated, the other's looked at him. "Or maybe they are in league with some humans. Working with humans to weaken the gargoyles or at least their morale." Goliath looked at him puzzled, MacBeth returned with a look of 'what?'

"For a minute there, I could have swore you sounded like Demona." Goliath tangented. Angela and MacBeth traded looks.

"So you're saying that the faes are trying to scare us away?" Angela interpreted.

"Could Fox ask her mother if she knows anything about what these Faes are doing?" Elisa, asked.

"Titania visited after that battle with Eris," Fox's husband pointed out, "she said that Eris was arrested on Avalon but someone was involved in her escape."

"Dinna Queen Titania also say that Eris was protesting?" MacBeth remembered.

"That's right," Elisa remembered now too, "but what?"

"Maybe they are protesting gargoyle's existence?" Owen suggested, it wasn't a nice suggestion but it was a possibility.

"Or gargoyle's affects on humans?" Goliath thought.

"Or gargoyles and humans intermingling." MacBeth said out loud, without really meaning to. But that seemed to at least explain the concentrated fire and him and his wife. They discussed the situation further, traded information and cell phone numbers, so that they can be contacted if they need help in a future attack and so on.

"Angela!" Broadway's voice came from down the way. Angela got up, Goliath followed. The discussion started to break up after that when Broadway came out in a very nervous but adult way. "I'm going to be a father!"

The whole group got up and followed into a room where a temperature control system was set up and some hay arranged for the egg to rest on. The egg was rocking a bit and there was scratching, Angela was almost magenta with excitement and Broadway almost purple. The shell started to crack and the mother, father and grandfather fell close with anticipation. With four humans and four gargoyles, the small room started to get crowded.

"Come now," Hudson said, "family only." Owen and Xanatos left with Hudson, Elisa ran to Xanatos' wife Fox to get a blanket and other such things from a fellow mother. MacBeth sneaked to a spot at which he couldn't detect any security cameras or the like and pulled out his cell phone.

"How fast do ye think ye could get here?"

"_What? The Eyrie Building? Are you nuts? Why?_"

"Just get down here, Grandmother." With that MacBeth left the building.

Demona cautiously landed on a discrete part of the roof before approaching the group.

"What did you and Broadway decide on for a name?" Elisa asked, cooing over the infant gargoyle.

"We decided on 'Christina' if it was a girl." The proud mother informed. Broadway held Angela close who held her daughter so that Goliath and Elisa could admire the gurgling child. Also in the area was Xanatos with his wife who also had a baby (a few months old) in her arms.

"She's as beautiful as you." The father lovingly said to his mate, referring to how the baby had her mother's face.

"She has your wings," she nudged her husband, "and your skin, just a little darker."

"Looks like she has your father's horns," Elisa said referring to the purple gargoyle she stood near.

"I've only seen what your mother's horns looked like a couple of times but don't they look kind of like this?" Broadway imputed. With the reference to her, Demona decided that it was a good time to join the group.

"No, my horns stick out more, they are Goliath's horns," Demona said as she descended. Goliath turned angrily and positioned himself between Demona and the parents protectively. "Relax Goliath, I'm not here to hurt her." She growled at him, eyes glowing, as she brushed past him to see the child. As she looked at the girl she said softly, "-my- granddaughter" and then shot and evil look at Elisa.

"I was hoping you'd come," the glowing new mother beamed at her own mother. A glowing expression came over Demona's face as Angela let her hold the infant.

"You know, a millennia old and I've never held a baby, not even my own." Demona's glow shocked her ex who thought for a moment that it was his baby, Angela, she held in her arms, looking young and peaceful again.

"Well, I better leave," Demona said to Angela as she flashed her eyes at Elisa and Goliath who were watching her intensely.

"Alright, I'll come visit you soon, grandmother," Angela teased. Demona kissed Christina and Angela on the forehead before she departed.

Goliath, still processing Demona's seeming change in behavior, got a punch in the arm from her as she left.

Some time passed during which Demona and MacBeth developed their own unique pattern in their married life. During the day, MacBeth continued teaching school. He saw his students graduate and move on. The four that he grew closest too, Justin, Travis, Sarah and Samantha, he drew to suspect that they suspected he was married to a gargoyle but they respected his business and he deeply respected them and wrote them lots of nice teacher recommendations for college.

During the day, Demona continued her work with NightStone Unlimited and also started taking a few college classes after the insisting of MacBeth. At night, the married couple would do whatever they wanted. They stole artifacts for their own magical experimentation, conducted spontaneous magical experiments for the heck of it, which usually didn't hurt innocent people on MacBeth's insistence, and MacBeth helped Demona eliminate or at least control the lingering Hunter threat. They were happy together and felt free, realizing only now that their hatred (MacBeth of Demona and Demona of humans) had in fact made them prisoners in their immortality.

How the world had progressed as far as gargoyle's were concerned: the Supreme Court kept putting the subject of gargoyle citizenship off because a decision could not be reached; Congress would pass bills, veto bills, override bill and such continually over the gargoyles matter; and the president spoke out openly against gargoyles but everyone hated him anyway so he didn't have as much power as he thought he did. It seemed to be in a continual loop, as if they were trying to keep it unresolved. This matter was brought up at a discussion between Xanatos, Elisa, MacBeth and the gargoyles during the time that passed. They still had these meetings regularly for the fae attacks continued, randomly, and never again was a spell placed on anyone like the one MacBeth was attacked with.

"I don't understand how congress, the Supreme Court, and the president can all be so indecisive on the matter," Elisa started, "for 200+ years we've never had this chaotic of a system."

"I doubt anything like this was on the Founding Fathers' minds when they drafted the constitution, Elisa." Xanatos put it.

"But there is no pattern to the bills passed by the government except a circle." MacBeth noted. "The leaderships havena changed that much over the years, how do they continue to change their own minds so?"

Owen shook his head, "I really suspect that the faes are involved there too."

Brooklyn perked up, "Really?"

"How could that be?" Elisa's Detective partner Matt Bluestone, who happened to be there that time, asked.

"Believe me son," MacBeth informed, "'Tis not hard to have a spell be placed on ye and ye don even know about it."

"But that doesn't make sense," Elisa added her question without a second thought, "If the faes are trying to destroy us through the government, wouldn't they have done it by now? Why is politics going in a circle then?"

"There are probably unaffected humans with good consciences on our side counteracting them." Brooklyn added.

"Or we have faes on our side." Xanatos said calmly.

"If there are Faes in the government," MacBeth pondered, "they are probably more of the protesters Titania spoke about and perhaps there are faes in the system trying to simply counteract what these 'outlaws' are doing so that humans and gargoyles could make their own decisions."

"That would be good." Goliath added the profound and useless comment.

The discussion was interrupted by the mumbling of a baby, crawling out onto the balcony. The tiny blue gargoyle crawled over to the great big purple gargoyle, raised her hands up and said, "gwanga."

"Aw, hi Christina," Matt teased the little kid. Her babysitter, Liberty came out looking for her.

MacBeth went over and gently stroked the child's hair. "Gwangwa." She said innocently and stretched out for MacBeth who just smiled at the little girl.

"Silly Christie," Liberty said childlike to the young one, "that's not grandpa, no, he just tried to kill your grandma for centuries."

"Oh is that all I'm remembered for?" MacBeth teased.

With the subject changes, Elisa stated, "well, it's not as if we know that much about you. We still don't completely understand your story and I've learned not to take Shakespeare at his word."

MacBeth laughed, "Good decision lass." The group had broken up and all that remained to hear MacBeth's story was Elisa and Brooklyn, who, with a over a decade long grudge against Demona, wished to hear more about her. So he went ahead and told them of how he first met Demona, when 'The Hunter' was sent to kill his father. He told them how the hunter was really Gilcomgain, working for Duncan, heir to the throne of Scotland and cousin of MacBeth. He also told about how Demona, completely against her nature, saved his life that day that they met. He explained how Gilcomgain got MacBeth's girl and MacBeth's job and he didn't see Demona again until Duncan sent MacBeth and Gilcomgain to kill each other when MacBeth returned Demona the favor and saved her life. He told them about the spell the witches put on the pair, why they had the spell done originally...Elisa and Brooklyn knew why the Sisters really wanted the spell put on them. And finally he told them how Demona had betrayed him.

"It was actually all a misunderstanding," MacBeth started to defend her, "Ebode was trying to convince me to destroy her clan, she must have thought I'd listen to him..." MacBeth decided to stop defending her, there wasn't much point, either way, this story wasn't going to change the minds of Elisa and Brooklyn about her. "Now, yer turn, what happened while we were under the Sister's spell."

So Brooklyn explained how they were under the control of the Wyrd Sisters after Demona and MacBeth had met again and after Demona had turned the humans in the city to stone. He told him how the two stole ColdStone and other artifacts from Goliath's clan and worked side by side, much to the astonishment of the clan members. As a side note, Brooklyn told how Xanatos had used a MacBeth robot while the real MacBeth was out with the Sisters. Finally Elisa took over the explanation as she explained that MacBeth and Demona would finally be used as pawns in the ArchMage's battle for Avalon. When they were freed from the spell, Avalon sent them to Paris.

One evening at the end of the three years, MacBeth stopped by at a local antique shop, picked up a not-so-expensive item that was in good condition before heading home (this was MacBeth's way of playing his own stock market). He took it home and was cleaning up some of his antiques when he heard his wife yelling in the next room.

"Those blasted humans!" The blue woman yelled at the tv, "Treacherous, menacing!"

"What? What did they do?"

"They passed a bill that said that all gargoyles must come and be put in selected places for our 'protection'," she growled.

"So?" Sensing his lack of care, she turned quickly and angrily toward him, ready to hurt him.

MacBeth put his hands on her shoulder to calm her, "Do not worry, the Supreme Court will probably declare it unconstitutional, besides, if they havena caught you for all you've done, what makes you think they'll catch you and make you do this now?"

She growled, "But still, what about other gargoyles in the county, what will they do to them?"

"What other gargoyles? Do you think there are any besides Goliath and clan?"

"I don't want them to force them to do anything either," she swung her claws at him.

"I doubt they will, remember Xanatos and Puck both think there are faes behind all this, don give yeself an ulcer every time they threaten something like this, it's not good on my stomach!" He reached for the remote and turned off the TV, then he began playing with her hair.

Eyes glowing she said, "What have we ever done to them?" She grabbed MacBeth's hand roughly and then threw it away.

"Apparently while we were under a spell we help someone called the..." He resisted her attempts to resist him, pretending that she wasn't hurting him.

"'Archmage', yes I know you told me."

"Well, maybe the faes are angry about that..." MacBeth began to kiss her blue neck.

"What does that have to do with the other gargoyles?" She pulled away, pushing him in the process.

He pulled her back, "you are beautiful when you are angry."

"Uhg, we have to do something!" She began to vent her anger on MacBeth by trying to wrestle to get away from him, which he wouldn't let her do.

"You should become a lawyer." He winced as he took the pain.

Angry that MacBeth wasn't even sympathizing Demona pushed him over with her tail. He got up and attempted to stop her angry hands. He forced her to the wall into a position where she couldn't move anymore, "besides, what are you going to do about it right now?" She growled at him red-eyed. He pulled her into a kiss before she shoved him away. He pulled her with him and threw her to the floor, on which he pinned her. "Sersiously woman! You need to calm down!" He kissed her again, at which point she gave in and started kissing him passionately back.

Days later MacBeth got home before his wife did and sat down to check his voice-mail on his cell phone which he had forgotten that morning. There were two messages, one from Elisa asking for MacBeth's help in a battle against a fae and the second was Elisa calling to say never mind, they took care of it. He called her back to apologize for not being there and apparently the fae had been interested in an office tower and didn't stay long.

When dinnertime rolled around and Demona hadn't come home yet he called her office and left an obscure quote on her voice mail when he got it. Then he called her cell phone, he realized she had forgotten it when it went off in the next room. He started to worry. No one at the office would know when she came or went because she preferred as limited interaction as possible. He tried not to let it bother him, figuring she had a good reason for what she was doing, that she hadn't taken off for some reason. After being married for over a year now, why would she take off now? For no apparent reason?

He laughed, years ago he would have thought himself insane. The only reason he would be worried about Demona being missing is that it meant he had to go through a complicated search to find her in order to end his miserable life. He felt an aching emptiness, like a blackness forming inside of him. It was a horrible sensation, and he longed for Demona's presence but she felt far away, impossibly far. He didn't sleep that night.

The next morning he filled a missing person's report for "Dominique Destine" with the police and he himself remained anonymous incase Elisa Maza or Matt Bluestone were put on the case so it wouldn't lead back to him. After a few unproductive classes, the school administration let MacBeth go home and search for his wife. At the police station, he did see Matt for a bit but no sign of Elisa. He told the police all he knew about her disappearance and they told him that they did search her office and it was a mess, but no clues until they said that the same office tower had a fae incident near it the day before. Upset by this, he started to plot and to worry right in front of the police officers. They tried to calm him down but he just left for home. He started to load up his iron weapons while mumbling his rescue plans to himself.

"But wait, faes, they could be anywhere, how will I find her?" He went to his and Demona's magical talisman room where he spent several hours concocting a spell to find her. After searching and searching with the spells, he yelled at the talismans, "how can this be? She's not anywhere on the planet, she can't be dead..." he said with frightened hesitation, " I'm still here..." He was shaking. The seasoned warrior, the man who had been through everything, was now trembling with anger and fear. Thoughts raced through his mind. He was a ticking-time-bomb. He thrust himself out of the room, and paused as he came to his stairway where his stained-glass window was. He yelled at the window, "Where is she!" and took the nearest, most rare and valuable throwing object and threw it with all his anger at the window and shattered a portion of it. His feet gave out and he fell to his knees.

Then he heard it. It was a soft whisper, female voice, calling his name. His heart leaped, he looked around for her and saw nothing. Then his eyes settled on a shelf where a little porcelain doll paperweight sat that he had picked up last summer...but there was something different about it. There were three of them, and they didn't all have black hair, but one had yellow hair and another gray. Exhausted MacBeth blinked at them confused for a second before looking back down at the floor. "Of course, the magic realm." He told the rug. He closed his eyes and said with a sigh, "Avalon."

"You need help," the voice said after a pause. When MacBeth looked up at the paperweight again, it had returned to normal.


	2. Avalon Rescue

_**Together Chapter 2: Avalon Rescue**_

MacBeth landed on a populated balcony of the Xanatos mansion's castle in his small, personal jet. The gargoyles paid little attention to the regular visitor because they were distracted. They looked uncomfortable and as he got out, MacBeth could hear why.

"I can't believe this!" And angry booming voice came from a room a little farther away. "How could you do this to me."

"Please try to believe me..." A female voice tried to defend herself.

"After all this time... I can't believe I trusted you! I can't believe you betrayed... you lied to me! Do vows mean nothing to you! We were married! Or at least in the gargoyle way… is that it? You want to be married in the human way? Or was it just a human you want?"

"No! That's not true! Goliath, I don't… I didn't! Believe me, I would never betray you!"

"You made me love you! You made me think you loved me!"

"I do love you, I love you more than anything!"

"Hey," Brooklyn said to Lexington and Angela, trying not to think about the argument, "Did you hear? Elisa said that 'Dominique Destine' was reported missing, what do you think happened to her? She ran away? Who would notice she was missing anyway?"

"I would" MacBeth's voice caught their attention and they turned to greet him.

"Oh, hi MacBeth," Broadway said.

"What's up?" Brooklyn said.

"I need yer help," MacBeth announced, "Demona's missing, and I need yer help to find her."

"Who cares?" Lexington asked ignorantly.

"Where is she?" Hudson inquired.

"Why do -you- want to rescue her?" Broadway asked confused.

"Where is she?" Angela stepped in front of Brooklyn, "what happened?" Sensing her actual concern, the boys let MacBeth explain.

"Listen, I'm sure that the faes took her, I don't know why, but I do know that for those of us who are against the faes should not just let her be taken!"

"I…don't like the idea of helping her." Brooklyn added grudgingly.

"Listen laddie," MacBeth tried not to get angry, "she helped you plenty of times recently against the faes, are you just going to turn your back on her and treat her like she treated you in past years? During times like this? Do you want to be like her?"

"Why do you want to help her?" Brooklyn asked again angrily.

"Look, whether I like her or not, I am under a spell, connected to her, if you are not going to help for my sake, at least help for Angela's!"

"Alright," Goliath's second in command growled. "We'll help you," he gave in.

"How are we going to rescue her?" Lexington perked up at an adventure

"Are we going to go up against _all_ the faes?" Liberty likewise added.

"Alright," Brooklyn took a stand, "we can't all go. Someone needs to stay behind and continue the defense against possible future fae attacks. I'm going because I'm the second in command..."

"And because you have a grudge against Demona!" Lexington complained.

"What's going on?" Xanatos entered the scene, turning the clan's attention away from MacBeth, "what's that fight about?"

"Yes, what are those two fighting about, I dohn think I've ever seen them fight." MacBeth added.

The gargoyle's sighed, they really did not like their close friends fighting and they didn't like sharing their issues either. Liberty, softly, said simply this, "Elisa's pregnant."

They asked no more on such a sensitive issue, so MacBeth changed the subject. "Demona's missing," MacBeth informed Xanatos who perked up. "…and I think as an ally against the faes we should go after her."

"Do you have an idea where she might be?" Xanatos asked intrigued.

"I have reason to believe she's on Avalon, but I don't know how to get there."

"I do." Angela said.

"Wait," Brooklyn stopped skeptically, "Where did you get the idea she was there?"

"You see, "MacBeth explained, "the Wyrd Sisters…"

"The Wyrd Sisters?" Broadway interrupted, "is that it? You're under their spell and their using you to get to us! That's why you're actually on Demona's side!"

"Listen, no, I don think I'm under a spell (well, immortality and link to Demona…) and I dohn think the Wyrd Sisters are against us. If they are one of the gargoyle hating faes, why did they bind me to one?"

"I believe him," Angela helped him out. "We should go to Avalon and rescue Demona, not just because she's my mother and she's a member of the clan, but also because the first step in this war of gargoyles versus faes should be to unite all gargoyles, putting aside our differences for the common good!"

"Avalon?" Xanatos joined in, "Maybe I could go, seeing as I'm on good terms with a member of royalty there and all."

"I think we should decide who's going and who's staying." Brooklyn put in. "Are you sure Fox wouldn't have better luck talking to Titania."

"Fox should stay with the Jennine, she and Owen can run things here just fine without me for a little while and I think my mother-in-law will listen to me."

"Likewise Patch should stay," Brooklyn started making assignments. "Since Angela needs to go with us since she's familiar with Avalon, Broadway, you need to stay here and watch over Patch and Christina."

"I don't need a big party, this might run more smoothly if we're a little more discrete." MacBeth added.

"Alright then, you, me, Angela and Xanatos then."

"Sounds good."

"But, I wanted to go." Liberty and Lexington whined.

"I need you here, to defend the castle."

Patch came out with Christina in her arms. It was also apparent that Patch was several months pregnant. Brooklyn went over to her and explained the situation to her, softly caressing her face as he spoke to her.

"Why do you have to go?" Patch asked concerned, embracing her husband.

"I feel personally involved in this one."

"Hurry home."

Christina wriggled out of Patch's arms and clumsily walked across the stone floor to hug her mom. Angela gave her daughter and husband a parting hug and kiss before Brooklyn came over.

"Take good care of her," he said to Broadway, referring to his wife.

Broadway nodded with understanding. "Don't worry," He said, "the seven of us will protect this castle and city."

From the other room, they heard Elisa yelling louder than she had before "Listen to me! I'm sure you're the father, there never has been anyone else."

"That's impossible."

"Don't give me that different species garbage! All I know is that it's impossible that it could be anyone else!" A roar of anger was heard as Angela added:

"I can't stand it, we have to do something!"

"Don worry lass," Hudson comforted her. "Ah'll have Patch and Liberty take her back to her apartment when things cool down and Ah'll have a _long_ talk with him. Go see what ye can learn about this fae situation and help yer mother." After Xanatos gave a quick explanation and a kiss to his wife and kids, they were off.

After Angela gave the chant and they were on their way to the other realm, Brooklyn asked, "What is the plan anyway?"

"Um..." MacBeth hesitated. "The plan is to get to the island, learn what we can of the situation and then devise a plan."

"Sounds logical." As they grew closer MacBeth started to feel less empty, less alone, he knew for sure now that Demona was on Avalon.

At the island they were greeted by a short green elf with the voice of Warwick Davis. "Welcome to Avalon, please leave all weapons here, they will be returned upon your departure."

MacBeth groaned as he unloaded his iron-based guns and knives.

"All your weapons, sir, not just the iron ones." So MacBeth reluctantly unloaded his trusty laser gun and remaining weapons.

There were several faes on the island as well as gargoyles who were all minding their own business. It was shocking to the newcomers to see gargoyles and faes coexisting peacefully. In fact, it seemed it was someone else they had a problem with. A couple of large mean looking gargoyles descended on the New York group.

"What aire ye doin here?" One of the gargoyles snarled.

Xanatos put his hand forward, "Hey, we're just here to see some friends, alright?"

The other gargoyle approached MacBeth intimidatingly. "I don't like the idea of this one being here. He brought bad news last time" the gargoyle breathed over MacBeth.

MacBeth looked confused, "I'll not be…last time?"

Angela stepped forward, "Meeshak, Sariah, it's ok, he was under the Archmage's spell before, he's with me, alright?"

"Angela?" The gargoyles we surprised and happy to see her. Angela and the other gargoyles went to meet her old friends, who had barely aged since she had last seen them. She introduced her them to her new friends and showed them pictures of her husband and child.

Meanwhile Xanatos sought out his mother-in-law and MacBeth looked for the Wyrd Sisters. Finally MacBeth found the trio of faes, this was actually the first time he had seen the Wyrd Sister's in their normal form, young adult women in white mystical robes, one with black hair, one with golden and one with silver.

Selene was the first to see him, "Sisters, our hero has arrived."

"Where's Demona?" He asked bluntly.

"She is their captive." Phoebe said.

"Who's captive?"

"The others." Luna added helpfully.

"Other what?"

"Those who do not believe as us." Selene said mysteriously.

"Believe? Believe what?" The sisters just looked at each other trying to decide how much to tell him. He continued, "alright, let us start with the basics, what do they want with her?"

"She is their example..."

"Their witness," one sister finished the other's sentence.

"Witness to what?"

"Their belief." Pheobe sang.

Frustrated he asked again, "Where is she? Where are they keeping her?"

"The gargoyle who is in charge of the prison holds the key." And they left MacBeth to solve their riddles.

He went searching for the others and found Angela and Brooklyn talking to a few gargoyles. One of which had a face very similar to Brooklyn's but he was a different color.

"Are you two related?" MacBeth asked Brooklyn.

"We're all from the Wyvern clan," the gargoyle laughed joyfully, "For all we know we're second cousins." Next to Brooklyn's cousin was a tiger looking gargoyle in modern clothes holding the cousin's arm.

"Tessa," The non-Scottish gargoyle greeted MacBeth. "Brooklyn's 'cousin' is Enoch."

"Remember lass," MacBeth whispered impatiently to his step daughter, "you mother is captured, we must move quickly..."

"Oh I'm just dying to meet Katherine and Tom and Gabriel," Angela said excited. The gargoyles' expression change. "What?"

"Katherine died some months ago." Enoch calmly explained to comfort his rookery sister who was saddened by the news.

Meanwhile Tessa asked Brooklyn, "how is the outside world? Oh granted I dohn miss the persecutions but I miss living in the real world."

"You're not from here?" Brooklyn asked.

"Oh no, ah'm from Wales, King Arthur brought me clan here… but how is it? In the outside world?"

"Well, aside from the frequent fae attacks, we're starting to be treated better by the humans. Our clan does pretty well in New York..."

"Fae attacks? I dinnae know they had gone that far."

"Yeah, we've been attacked randomly and spontaneously by faes for almost two years now, do you know why?"

"Two years? I had forgotten how different the time was... There's a-, I guess ye can it call it a political debate that's been going on for quite a while here on Avalon."

"A 'political debate'? What's the debate over?"

"Whether gargoyles should be part of human society or not." Enoch joined the conversation.

"That makes sense," MacBeth inputted.

"The extreme of the argument on one side is that gargoyles should be removed from the human world, that just being there interferes with the human way of life…"

"But where would we go? Make a parallel world like Avalon for us to go to?" Brooklyn demanded, "We certainly wouldn't all fit here."

Tessa sighed unsure, "I dunno. They think gargoyles should be banned from interfering with humans like faes aire banned from interfering with mortals. They believe the interference will lead to the destruction of one race or the other. Ah'm not sure of the details, it's not exactly like ah'm supportive of that side. The other extreme is that faes should actually encourage humans and gargoyles to live together. And then there aire the faes that just think we should leave them both alone and so on."

"Wow, really?" Angela said as she turned to MacBeth, "that makes sense, I guess the radical on the anti-gargoyle-human-mixing side are going to the extreme of trying to take out all gargoyles."

"I'm sorry I have to leave you but I have guard duty." Enoch kissed Tessa on the cheek before leaving.

"Guard duty?" MacBeth muttered under his breath.

"How can we stop something like this?" Brooklyn asked MacBeth off to the side, Angela left to talk to her old friends. "How are we supposed to stop this 'debate'?"

"I don't know." MacBeth replied, "I think Xanatos talking to Titania is our only hope at this point. Keep your eyes open for ideas, Angela, we'll need your knowledge of this island. Tessa, a friend of ours is imprisoned here, do you know where prisoners are kept?"

"Yes, but it's guarded by both gargoyles and faes..." Tessa replied, confused by his query.

"Then we'll need help..."

Until sunrise, MacBeth looked for Xanatos or the Wyrd Sisters while Angela continued to find old friends and show them pictures of her husband and baby that she brought along for that purpose. It was day when MacBeth found Xanatos and the gargoyles turned to stone.

MacBeth sat down at the table Xanatos was eating at. He looked tired. "Did you learn anything?" Xanatos asked his fellow human.

"Apparently, 'tis all politics." David groaned in agreement.

"Was the queen helpful?" MacBeth asked.

Xanatos breathed deeply, "Not really. I didn't get a chance to talk to her long. It took a long time to convince enough of those fairies that I was her son-in-law," David laughed tiredly, "she wants to remain neutral on the subject; even though I know full well she wants gargoyles and humans to intermingle because she wants the clan to protect my wife and children."

"Did she say why they were letting Demona be locked up?"

"No, I didn't have a chance, she was busy. She said she'd get back to me today when she had more time." MacBeth discussed with David what he had learned but they didn't talk long before David left to take a nap under a tree. MacBeth sought out the Wyrd Sisters. He longed to see if he could at least visit Demona but feared that might put him as suspect in someway for being connected to her so he stayed out of the bulk of the faes' ways. Finally he tracked down the sisters.

"Please, tell me how to free Demona!" He demanded of them. "At least under human and gargoyle customs and traditions, it is wrong to hold someone against their will if they didn't do anything to them!"

"You need not convince us of that," Pheobe said in a reassuring voice.

"If it were up to us, she would not be captured," Selene stated frankly.

"Who would have the power to release her from this unjust captivity!" MacBeth's anger started to rise.

"Why, the queen and king..." Luna started.

"How can I talk to them?" MacBeth asked impatiently.

"You can talk to her right now." Luna said, looking past MacBeth. He turned around to see David Xanatos and Queen Titania coming toward him and before he knew it, the Wyrd Sisters had disappeared.

Titania led Xanatos and MacBeth back to her 'office' of sorts.

"Why is Demona being held captive?" MacBeth asked when time for questions began.

"Ah, yes, you've come here to rescue your wife, that's right." Titania said to MacBeth's shock and Xanatos' surprise.

"Wife?" Xanatos repeated.

"Nevermind," MacBeth told Xanatos forcefully. "How can we free her?"

"What do you mean 'nevermind'?" David demanded, "sounds rather significant to me!"

"Do you mind, laddie?" MacBeth snapped back, "I don't want to waste her highness' time!"

David remained confused as his mother-in-law began to reply the Scotsman's question.

"Well," Titania started, "she's not exactly innocent you know. Even if you tried to free her, you wouldn't get much help from the gargoyles on this island. Last time the both of you were here you were enemies of these gargoyles."

"But that wasn't her fault, the Wyrd Sister's had us under a spell when they brought us to fight on Avalon! She canna be held for that!" Behind the conversation Xanatos sat back and learned.

"She has done more wrong than that," Titania said bluntly. "Listen, I want to help but I can't choose sides here."

MacBeth slammed his fist, "You let the Wyrd Sisters walk around!"

Xanatos changed the subject, "isn't there some sort of non-interference policy for the faes? I mean, shouldn't there be some sort of punishment for the attacks they have put on us and for this kidnapping?"

Titania sat for a moment thinking. MacBeth worked harder to suppress his anger than to think of what to say next. "I'll tell you what," Titania decided, "I can't help you free her, but once she is no longer under my people's captivity I will be sure to make sure this 'non-interference policy' is better enforced. Demona will never be captured by faes again." Titania promised as she started to get up.

"Thank you." MacBeth said plainly but unbelieving.

"Now come if you wish to learn more about what we face on this island" Titania said as she lead them out the door, "the next session is about to begin."

"Session of what?" David asked.

"The debate," Titania answered in a what-else-is-there tone.

Titania led Xanatos and MacBeth to a room in the castle. When they entered the room, it became apparent that the room inside was larger than the outside, probably by some use of magic. It was a large, bright room. Shaped like two football stadiums, one flipped over onto another. Titania led MacBeth and Xanatos to sit in the lower half of the room, under many flying faes. All the faes were silent except for the fae in the center, making a speech. The faes looked as if they wanted to argue the point the current fae was making... MacBeth assumed that Oberon cast some spell on them to hold their tongue. Oberon, king of the fair folk, was seated on the side opposite the door and seemed to be presiding over the debate like a judge. The debater was a fae of some sort of Hindu legend. He was currently arguing for the humans but not against the gargoyles.

His argument was something like this, "If things continue as they are now, one of the species is going to destroy or at least force the other into hiding. We can't sit by and do nothing. But we can't chose sides either. I believe the gargoyles are going to terribly affect human society, culture and way of life, they need to stop interfering! I recommend that we take the gargoyles out of society, keep them safe, somewhere such as here."

"The gargoyles have only just barely come out of hiding from thousands of years," MacBeth heard Xanatos mutter. He had, after all, largely contributed to the reemergence of gargoyles.

The next fae, he looked rather like a wizard, got up argued that humans had had their turn with the world, it was the gargoyle's turn and that the humans should be the ones removed from society.

The next fae looked like an average American teenager. "The only way we hope to encourage a working form of society is to strike a balance between cultures," though the fae's appearance of youth, his tone suggested more age and wisdom then one would expect. "At one point the human world was at odds with itself. The United States, for example, has many similar experiences but they grew to accept the differences and grew to be a new culture and the strongest human nation on Earth. The only way we can hope to prevent war between races is to encourage interspecies...not just tolerance, but also cooperation and acceptance."

The next fae to argue their point looked like a strange multi-legged, dark, triangular head creature that could only be described as a 'shadow.' "War is inevitable." The fae said bluntly, "I say we encourage it! Think of how each side will grow and become stronger from the experience. Imagine what they could learn!"

Next was a female dressed in Greek armor. "...and how do you plan to 'remove' these humans or gargoyles from society?" She started, "despite their inferiority, they will fight back. Whether we are protecting them and giving them a good life, neither humans nor gargoyles take kindly to captivity of any form. The only way to deal with this situation is to do as we have for all time, non-interference. How is either race to progress and better themselves if we are always there protecting them, they must live for themselves, learn for themselves. If one race kills the other off, it will only be after a long time and the surviving race would have had to better themselves plenty to achieve the victory. A human theorist called it 'natural selection,' evolution is the key here. Both species were native to this planet, what gives us the right to decide which one survives?"

MacBeth was suddenly hit with a burst of pain and turned aside in agony as everybody else watched the next fae come in. The fae, who looked Egyptian, brought in his own visual aide: Demona. She was chained to a floating pad and obviously beaten and too tired to really know what was going on or what to do about it. "You want non-interference?" He shouted, "this is what you get." He pointed at Demona. "This 'human' is in fact a gargoyle, a gargoyle enchanted, not only to be human during the day, but also to live forever under certain conditions. She is a menace! She has destroyed more human lives than you might think one gargoyle capable and she has attempted to kill many, many more. For example, once she tired to kill many by turning a whole city to stone. She also turned many humans into gargoyles in attempt to destroy them as well as almost destroying the entire race with a virus. If we don't interfere, this is what we'll get!"

Oberon interrupted, "you forget, many of our people did interfere with this one."

"Yes, but Puck didn't have a choice, that was her doing, and there have been humans granted with immortal life and none of them have caused this damage! Gargoyles must be removed from human society before they not only destroy the culture, but they also destroy humanity as we know it!" Demona started to look like she was recovering from whatever daze she was under. She started to acknowledge her surroundings, but, before she had a chance to start to fight her way out, the fae noticed and hit her with his magical staff and she returned to her sickened daze.

MacBeth groaned in time with the lashing and turned angrily to Titania, "how do you let her be treated so!" Titania started to explain the same reason she stated before when MacBeth added, "Why are you letting them torture her?"

"She can't die," Titania stated matter-of-factly.

"But torture! The pain!" MacBeth's agony came through his voice. Titania face expression change as if she just realized something she had forgotten. It was like she had forgotten about pain since her species rarely experienced it. MacBeth angrily stormed out.

MacBeth made his way to a quiet, secluded area when he started pulling together ingredients for spells. A few of the ingredients he managed to smuggle onto the island but the main ingredients he still needed. David Xanatos came running.

"What's the plan?" He asked MacBeth, realizing he was doing magic. "Titania wanted me to remind you that she was sorry but it was really important that she didn't get involved."

"Tomorrow night," MacBeth started explaining the plan, "I'm going to make the break. I'm concocting a spell that will make me invisible to gargoyles and another that will make me invisible to faes, and unless Tom comes running out, that should cover it... I'll need extra ingredients..." It was obvious that MacBeth was still making the plan. "Would you please go get a knife and some garlic from the castle's kitchen?" David unquestionably agreed and hurried back with the items.

"Won't they smell you?" Xanatos asked as he handed MacBeth the garlic.

"An unfortunate side effect."

"So..." David started up conversation while MacBeth prepared his recipe. "How did you end up marrying Demona?"

MacBeth looked up long enough from his spell to give Xanatos a glare, "I have one piece of advice for you lad: immortality, do not do it, 'tis not worth it. I might as well have died when my Kingdom thought I died. I might as well have gone all the way to hell instead of living this miserable life." MacBeth took the knife and cut his hand. Xanatos flinched. MacBeth let the blood drip onto his spell.

"What are you doing?" Xanatos asked shocked.

"One of the only places you'll find iron on this island is in blood laddie. Would you mind donating a little." MacBeth cleaned off the blade and Xanatos carefully gave a little blood too.

"Ok..." David said as he clenched his hand around a cloth, "where does Demona come in? I figured she'd only cause more misery."

MacBeth sighed, "She and I became friends. Aye, we were desperate, but 'tis amazing how having someone to talk to, be with, that has shared many of the same experiences you have, say, 1000 years, can really help you through the misery."

"But how do you trust her?" David spoke from experience.

"That, in case you are wondering, as we've grown closer, the sharing of pain bond we share has grown stronger. We've found that we can also sense or sensations, like emotions, trust… It was amazing how that one issue kept us from becoming friends earlier, like we had locked ourselves out of hope because of our distrust."

"And you fell in love?" MacBeth nodded, David added, "wow."

"Ye understand why I prefer you dinnae spread this around?"

Xanatos laughed, "Because everyone would -know- you've finally cracked!"

MacBeth chuckled as he started putting the final preparation on his spell. "When sunset falls, I will need that teal-Brooklyn gargoyle, Enoch, that's his name. What I want you to do is gather up Brooklyn and Angela and get to the boat. Get as if you are getting ready to leave and they should return the weapons. I want you to wait, I will have to run from the prison to the boat and I need you guys to cover us until we're to safely away from the island."

"I understand."

When sunset came, David Xanatos went to go get the gargoyles. MacBeth was putting the final touched of converting his potion to a powder when Xanatos returned with Enoch, Angela and Brooklyn.

"We explained to him on our way here..."Brooklyn started as the group approached.

"We explained why Demona needs to be freed, that she is being held unjustly and that she is needed in our battle against the faes in the outside world." Angela explained.

"It wasn't easy," the teal Brooklyn said, looking at Angela, "but I trust my rookery sister."

"Hey," Brooklyn asked suddenly after they discussed the plan further, "how do you know a fae can't hear our plan?"

"Because I cast a spell laddie."

"But faes are made of magic, how will these spells you cast not be noticed by them?"

"'Twas what the iron in the blood is for."

After discussing for a few more moments, Enoch gave MacBeth the key to the Demona's cell and the spell guarding it. MacBeth asked him to go with him, show him the way but Enoch refused. He was still hesitant about whether this was the right thing to do or not.

So the plan was set in motion. MacBeth worked his way to a deserted side of the Avalon castle as he cast his invisibility spell he had prepared. He worked his way into the dungeon area, ready with a powerful explosive spell with a dab of blood in the mix.

MacBeth walked very quietly glancing at the rows of cells he passed. There were only three rows, the first two were iron based cells that held faes. He noticed Eris and Ares among the faes imprisoned. He was glad to see some justice was administered on the faes that had attacked them in the previous year. He didn't see the squat old green witch or the long skinny purple fae, much to his disappointment. Just then he looked up to see the long skinny fae. He had his long legs propped up on a desk and he was relaxing as he guarded the prisoners. MacBeth could remember when he first saw that long white hair and long ears a few years ago attacking near Demona's office. His ears went red and his face hot as anger built up in him as he knew that fae had something to do with Demona's disappearance because she was kidnapped from her office. He put his anger aside for a moment as he proceeded cautiously.

When MacBeth drew close enough to use his explosion spell, the fae perked up at the sound of his footsteps. MacBeth had to move quickly now to disable the fae before he discovered his presence. As MacBeth threw his spell, the fae did also, realizing something suspicious was happening so he blew a blast of energy in MacBeth's direction. The blast not only hurt and knocked MacBeth over, it disabled the invisibility spell.

Both down temporarily, MacBeth recovered faster than the fae did. He rushed to the row of cells, enchanted to hold the gargoyle prisoners. MacBeth's heart leapt when he caught sight of Demona. He didn't realize just how much he missed her until he caught sight of her blue skin and red hair. He hurried to her cell door, unlocked the cell with the key Enoch had given him.

Demona was unconscious, some tranquilizer spell to keep her from being a problem, probably. Once MacBeth had his wife in his arms and was working his way out of the cell, the fae was stirring. He started to blast purple magic toward MacBeth, who with his much experience was able to dodge it while carrying Demona, but that wasn't going to help them get out of the prison. Suddenly and quickly there was a teal fist and the fae was punched to the side. Then MacBeth had realized what had happened, Enoch had come and had punched the purple fae.

"How did you do that laddie?" MacBeth looked up from the fae to the gargoyle.

"Iron in the blood right?" Enoch revealed his bleeding fist.

"Here, hold her one moment." MacBeth handed Demona to Enoch as he picked up the disoriented fae off the ground and threw him against some iron bars before he could do anything about it, and then MacBeth threw him into a cell.

The purple fae yelled at him, "You won't get away with this?"

"Nay," MacBeth angrily said to the fae, "and I will line up all yer gargoyle murdering friends right next to ye!"

"You won't get away with this species intermingling plan! There will be war and your offspring will be enemies to both sides!"

MacBeth ignored the iron weakened fae and his delusional cries. He took Demona jealously out of Enoch's arms, back into his own again.

"You don't have a lot of time," Enoch said, "Hurry!" So the human with the blue gargoyle ran after the teal gargoyle. As they ran through the crowds of gargoyles and faes, they started to attract attention. MacBeth didn't worry and focused on running, knowing before long they would be to the dock and away from this place. Suddenly a blast of familiar blue lightening shot past MacBeth. Xanatos was waiting in the boat, ready with MacBeth's laser. He and Angela were already wearing out their welcome by shooting faes that were appearing to try to stop MacBeth. The attention of the crowd was drawn to the escaping group. The little green elf was yelling at Xanatos in the boat.

On the shore, Tessa was talking to Brooklyn before they left. "Ah'm going with you!"

"No, you don't know what kinda dangers are out there."

"Yes I do! Why do ye think my clan came to this island? For a summer vacation? And whether ye like it or not, ah'm coming, and from the sounds of things, ye need all the help ye can get." Tessa looked up from talking to Brooklyn and saw Enoch coming with MacBeth, her expression became saddened. "I have to go with them Enoch, I cannae live in this world, it's not mine. It's crowded here, I like being where gargoyles are the minority..." Tessa sounded defensive, "...and I cannae wait to catch up on my Star Trek episodes..." The tigress sounded like she was trying to convince herself too.

"It's ok." Enoch said as softly as his touch of his hand on her face, "I don't know what I'm going to do now...not even the gargoyles can trust me now after helping with the break-out..." he was hesitant, "and I don't know if I can live with these faes anymore after what I've learned." finally he got worked his way to his point, "Tessa, I've been thinking about this for the last month now...I know we've only know each other for a few months, but you're the most amazing person I've ever met..." he was doing a wonderful job of working around his point, "but...will you be my mate? For all time, will you be mine as I would be yours?" He couldn't believe he said it. Tessa's smile broadened and she gave him a hug and a kiss.

Meanwhile, while Enoch was proposing to Tessa and Xanatos was grumbling about their timing, Angela hurried up to meet MacBeth with her mother in his arms. "Why is she out?" She looked concerned. There seemed to be a bit of a calm in the storm of the faes coming to stop Demona's escape but Brooklyn and David kept them covered.

"I dohn know what those faes did te her!" MacBeth said angrily.

"Well, we must hurry, before those faes stop us and we need to get home before Goliath and Elisa kill each other."

"He would not kill his own child." Luna said, startling MacBeth and his step daughter. The three Wyrd Sisters had appeared right behind them.

"What?" MacBeth was confused.

"Elisa tells the truth about her child." Phoebe said mystically.

"How is that possible?" Angela asked.

"You ask _us_ how something is possible?" Selene sounded insulted.

"What? You did? Really?" Angela asked.

Luna explained , "Do you really think that the human Patch's metamorphosis spell was enough for her to conceive Brooklyn's sons?" Angela and MacBeth waited patiently to have more explained. Luna added, "Or Demona's?"

"Demona?" MacBeth said shocked, "how many spells does she have on her?"

"That spell was not on her, but your son." The Sisters must have loved getting strange expressions from people, which is probably why they always revealed the truth in pieces. MacBeth's jaw had dropped as thoughts rushed through his head. Magic and laser fire started to go again and the Sisters started to fade away.

"Wait! Ahim not done asking ye questions yet!" MacBeth shouted. Angela just pulled the shocked Scot to the boat, pushed off from shore and away from the island.


	3. Avalon Journey

_**Together Chapter 3: Avalon Journey**_

The boat drifted through the fog silently for a while as they finally had a chance to relax now that they we not being followed by rabid faes.

"Hey, Angela," Brooklyn said calmly as he worked his way to the front of the boat, "What's up? What did the Wyrd Sisters say to you guys that put you in such shock?"

Angela turned around, sighed, and finally met his eye. "Apparently the children of Elisa, Goliath and your children where the work sorcery." Brooklyn now shared the shock.

After a pause, Brooklyn said "Child_ren_?"

MacBeth, crouched on the bottom of the boat, threw a dirt clog into the water, "It really disturbs me how they do this to us...make us think they're doing us a favor just to find out 'tis all a plot to us and to bring us down to destruction." Brooklyn's expression changed to that of fear.

"I don't think so, MacBeth," Angela tried to be optimistic, "I really think the Sisters are on our side this time. I believe that they are doing us more favors than granting some of us compatibility." There was silence for a while. Xanatos and the new comers didn't really have any connections to the situation and were only slightly more confused than the other three.

Brooklyn asked, "I don't understand, what did they do to them?"

"Why dohn ye ask –them- laddie?"

"How long is she going to be out?" Enoch interrupted, looking down at Demona.

"Yeah" Brooklyn went along with the change in subject, "What are we going to do with her when she wakes up?"

"Why don't you tie her up and drag her behind the boat?" Xanatos said sarcastically bored.

Brooklyn took him seriously, "Well, at least tie her up?"

"No!" Angela said mad.

"Aye," Enoch put a hand on Brooklyn's shoulder, "We just rescued her from captivity, wouldn't make sense to bind her again."

"Please Brooklyn, give her a chance?" Angela begged.

"A chance?" Brooklyn asked skeptical, "How many times have you said that and we all ended up in a lot of trouble?"

Angela looked hurt, "Not in the last few years!"

"Yeah? What about that time about a year ago we caught her breaking into a museum?"

Angela sighed, "She's still an ally…"

A collective gasp cut her off. The attention of the whole boat was turned to the clearing fog. They seemed to be anywhere BUT New York.

"Oh yeah," Angela said sheepishly, "I forgot to mention...we were awful busy tonight and last night. Avalon won't send us home right away."

"Ye mean ye dohn know how to get us back?" MacBeth questioned the girl.

"That is how we get back, we go where Avalon wants us to go until it is time for us to go home."

"You mention this now?" Xanatos raised an eyebrow.

"And time passes differently on Avalon, every hour spent there, a day goes by in the real world."

"What!" Brooklyn blew up, "that means over a month has gone by! Patch would have had to lay her egg...eggs...she's only gargoyles at night, what will the eggs do to her? Not to mention more than one! Oh, she better be ok...I don't know what I'd do if she wasn't!" Brooklyn started to fret. Angela calmly parked the boat in a deserted shack next to a crumbling dock and sunrise fell upon them...a stone day will probably help Brooklyn's ulcer, not to mention Enoch's hand. MacBeth was happy to share Demona's pain of transformation again. So David and MacBeth were left with four stone gargoyles and an unconscious human.

"Well," David let out a sigh, "This certainly isn't how I expected to spend my week…"

"You mean month?"

Xanatos quickly pulled out his cell phone, "Ah, no reception."

"I'm not surprised, we seem to be in the middle of nowhere." The two humans got out of the boat and took a look around the ghost town. The village seemed to have been abandoned over a half century ago and the country appeared to be a desert.

"Well," MacBeth exhaled, "I could sure use some sleep"

David laughed, "how many days have you gone without sleep?" MacBeth tiredly rose three fingers. "Well, I'm going to see if there's a town up that road."

"Aye," MacBeth climbed into the boat and laid back against unconscious Demona. "I'll stay here and make sure Demona doesn't smash anyone we like."

David hesistated, "No offense or anything… but what does she see in you?"

MacBeth laughed, "She loves guys who try to kill her, of course."

David rolled his eyes, "I still can't believe you trust her."

"'Tis been over a year and she hasna betrayed me yet."

"Wow, that's longer than I lasted." Xanatos was looking away and didn't see MacBeth's suspicious look. "We were allies for a couple of years, and even I, who is suspicious of everyone, was fooled by her."

MacBeth laughed, "We were allies for -decades- before –I- ever wanted to kill her." MacBeth's tone turned serious, "Well, you know Fox," MacBeth used David's wife as an example, "many consider her dishonest and untrustworthy, how do you trust her? How do you know she didn't marry for your money?" David didn't need to answer that.

Demona groaned in her unconscious state. MacBeth reached to stroke her hair. He placed his hand on her belly, hoping to be able to prove if what the Wyrd Sisters had suggested, she was going to have a son, was true. David figured out what he was thinking.

"So, Patch and Brooklyn, Goliath and Elisa...One gargoyle, one human, both going to have children through the help of magic...I agree with you, they have plans for the kids." David hesitated, "Demona's pregnant too, isn't she? Another half-and-half child?"

MacBeth's lack of response was answer enough for David. "Well, I'll let you sleep," David started to head off, "you crazy old man."

When MacBeth woke, the sun was much higher in the sky. He was woken by the stirring of his pillow.

"MacBeth?" She groaned as he sat up, "wha- wher-?"

"'Tis ok, yer safe"

Demona blinked up at the stones she was leaning against. She felt so safe with a stone Brooklyn looming over her and a chubbier Brooklyn duplicate as well. See looked back at MacBeth, "What happened? I was in my office and then there was this really feminine male fae, and then I was in a prison cell, then in front of a group of faes, and then another, much larger group of faes and then the cell again..." She felt like she was telling a dream.

"Come on, let's take a walk," MacBeth said as he helped her up.

The two discussed events as they strolled through the streets of the deserted town, Demona wearing MacBeth's trenchcoat. MacBeth told her about the different sides of the fae's 'political debate'. "So there are many who do not think they should interfere. The ones that kidnapped you claimed that since you did a lot of terrible things, all gargoyles are causing the destruction of humans and must be eliminated. Then there are the ones that want to encourage gargoyle and human acceptance. I think the Wyrd Sisters are part of that group and in fact and trying, I believe…." He hesitated, "to create a half human/half gargoyle race to help encourage peace." Demona gave MacBeth an astonished looked when he told her that. "Apparently, Goliath and Elisa, Brooklyn and Patch, and..." he took a deep breath, "you and I are all going to have children through their help." Demona's expression morphed from surprise to realization. "You knew?" MacBeth stopped strolling through the streets and looked at her.

"I--I wasn't sure, I mean, until now I didn't think it was possible. But now it makes sense..." Demona's thoughts wandered. "What do they want with our child!" Demona said suddenly. "They must have a plan for them, just like they did with us!"

Demona looked up to see MacBeth smiling and growled at him for not caring. "I missed your yelling." She rolled her eyes are him. "No really! Come now, how could ye do that to me? Going and getting kidnapped like that! Do you realize all the work and torture you put me through?"

"Ha! The torture I put YOU through? How about when you landed yourself in the hospital for nearly a week! That's torture." As Demona said that, MacBeth smiled. So she responded, "Well… I didn't miss YOU. I was just terribly uncomfortable with the fact that you nearly dieing meant I could die." MacBeth laughed and she kissed him.

Their moment was interrupted by the sound of a blast and running footsteps. Xanatos soon came running around a bend, followed by the squat witch that Demona and MacBeth had run into before.

MacBeth immediately pulled out an iron bullet gun and threw it at Xanatos, who caught it, rolled around, took cover and started firing back. MacBeth threw another gun to Demona, who started firing, while MacBeth pulled out this ray gun and an iron chain out of the pockets of his trenchcoat.

"My gosh, what all do you keep in there?" Demona asked between shots, MacBeth just smirked and handed her one end of the chain.

Demona immediately threw her gun to Xanatos, who caught it with his free hand and began firing both guns. Demona yelled to him over the fire as she started to climb the nearby building, "Draw her attention!"

"How! She seems more interested in the two of you!" Xanatos shouted, but Demona just climbed until she was high enough to take flight.

At the other end of the chain, MacBeth acted like an anchor for the chain on the ground, while firing his laser with the other hand. Demona flew around the witch until she had the witch bound, which took a few tries because the witch kept trying to escape.

The trio composed themselves as they surveyed their prisoner. David decided to note, "Wow, you two really do make a good team!"

Demona gave MacBeth a look. He shrugged, "He knows." In the process of rolling her eyes, she noticed a few humans come running up to them.

Most of them had dark hair and olive skin. They came running up and asked them about their magical captive in a language the traveling group did not understand. MacBeth was about to start going through the different languages he knew to see if he could find some way to communicate when one of the humans stepped forward. Each of the traveling group a double take when they first saw the woman. At first she looked like an old witch to MacBeth, an old green gargoyle to Demona and a young school girl to Xanatos. Finally they all realized that she looked exactly like a Wyrd Sister, but she had red hair.

"Thank you for capturing her." The sister said, "She's been a menace to us since before sunrise. I take it you know about faes since you were about to capture her?" She wasn't able to get a response out of the group, since they were all still jaw-dropped. So she put her hand forward, "The name's Artemis."

"You're a..." David stuttered, "a Wyrd Sister?"

The red-head gave out a laugh, "I haven't been called that in a long time!"

"I'm David Xanatos," He introduced, "This is Demona and MacBeth."

"Ah, the infamous duo!" Artemis shook their hands. She was much friendlier than they thought possible for a Wyrd Sister. It was also a nice touch that she didn't speak in riddles.

"Is not Artemis a Greek goddess?" MacBeth changed the subject.

"Oh, we all did our bit of being goddess back in the day. Back when we still hung out together, we all kinda fought over the moon...Luna much preferred hanging out in Rome..."

"Why did you leave the sisters?"

"Because Luna, Phoebe and Selene turned into thugs for hire." Her voice held centuries of disgust. "They did the bidding of whoever they felt like pleasing at the moment. It was when they joined up the Archmage that we went our separate ways."

"That was when I'd had enough, I refused to participate in the scheme to get you two," she motioned at Demona and MacBeth, "condemned for the rest of your life." Demona and MacBeth gave each other a look that suggested disagreement with the word 'condemned'. Artemis must have known what they were thinking, because she added, "don't tell me you now think it was worth it?" Demona and MacBeth's expression fell in agreement. "Anyway, after we split, I came back to my people, because I love working with them," her face lit up as she talked.

"So we're in Greece?" Demona asked.

"West Turkey, actually."

"Do ye know what the Wyrd Sister's plans are now?" MacBeth asked.

"Yes, actually, because I'm working with them again."

"You are!" Demona growled.

"Hey, we're on the same side, believe me!" Artemis could tell by their expressions that they did not. "Ever since the Archmage was killed. Now we've been working together against those other faes that are trying to commit genocide."

"What of these children?" MacBeth interrupted, "What are your plans for them?"

"Oh nothing like their plans for you, I assure you." Artemis thought for a moment. "And they have nothing like that further planned for you, by the way." She tried to reassure them.

"What are your plans? Why did you grant us, and two other couples we know compatibility?"

"Oh, you aren't the only ones. We've got allies all over." Artemis turned to the small group of humans with her, "These humans actually consider themselves part of a mixed clan. Chloe here has just become pregnant with a half-breed." The young mother blushed, apparently understanding what Artemis was saying.

"But what gives you the right!" Demona asked.

"Hey! We only granted compatibility to cross species couples that already wanted kids!"

Xanatos blinked, "These two wanted kids!"

Demona and MacBeth exchanged an awkward glance before MacBeth returned to the subject, "But why?"

"To help unite the species!" Artemis didn't seem to appreciate her motives being questioned. "I'm sorry about the conflicts, it's not like I want this! There's another mix couple in this clan, her human husband was killed last week by this…" she motioned at the chained witch angrily, but the subject also seemed to hurt. "Look, I need to take care of her, thanks for your help. And here…" she waved her hand and an orb few into Xanatos' hands, "…so you can understand my friends here. They can help you get any supplies you need." In a huff and a flash of light, Artemis and the squat witch disappeared.

The Turkish humans led the traveling humans to their home, perched on top were their stone friends. The Turks were very friendly and helped them find some food. They also traded battle strategies before sunset began to fall and the group decided to head back to their gargoyles friends.

On the way back to the boat, Xanatos sneered, "I don't see how a few half-breed babies are supposed to be of help to us."

MacBeth sighed, "Ye forget that the faes are immortal. They are planning for the long run here. They may expect this war to last for a long time."

"I don't like the sound of this," grunted Demona. "I wouldn't trust a Wyrd Sister if she had bubble-gum pink hair... even if they did help you 'rescue' me."

The human trio was just starting on the food when the gargoyles awoke and Demona transformed.

"Demona!" Brooklyn growled when he saw her awake. He seemed to have forgotten that they had just saved her and remembered only his grudge.

"Calm Down!" Demona stared the other gargoyle down. "I'm not going to hurt you, if I wanted to I would have done that at day!"

"Why didn't you? Xanatos and MacBeth stop you?"

"Because you're not my enemy Brooklyn! My enemy's enemy is my friend."

"Hmph, and next time, what will it be, you'll help up right up 'til we help you defeat your enemies and then drop us like a rock...literally?"

"I would but I love my daughter too much." She sneered.

"Brooklyn," Angela said calmly, "believe her. I do. I believe she has no reason to betray us when the battle is won."

"You make it sound like it's going to go quickly." Enoch interrupted, "These are immortals we're fighting, it may never end."

"Oh yes, Mother," Angela changed the subject, "These two gargoyles joined us at Avalon to help us out in New York. This is Tessa."

Angela moved on in her introductions. "And Brooklyn's cousin..." She moved the dark teal gargoyle, "is Enoch. He helped MacBeth get you out of prison."

"He's not your cousin." Demona said bluntly. "He's your brother." The two long faced boys looked at each other, amazed and doubtful. After no words were exchanged, Demona added, "He really is, your mother and I were friends."

"Really" Enoch asked, not knowing Demona well enough to hate her, "Tell us about her?"

As story time started, Xanatos and MacBeth told Angela and Tessa about their fae encounters during the day, about the granting of compatibility to gargoyle-human couples world-wide and they discussed how they doubted it was for the greater good.

"Half-breeds all over the world?" Angela asked, "Why?"

"I don't know," said MacBeth "but fae gifts always come with a painful price." He said as he looked at story telling Demona.

Later, as story time ended, Brooklyn joined the fae conversation. "I as much I would love to have kids," Brooklyn looked out over the water, "I think I'd rather they didn't 'grant us compatibility' than have my kids ripped away from me as part of their _plan_." Brooklyn gazed sadly into the water and Tessa put a hand on her future brother-in-law's shoulder.

"So if Avalon sends us these places, where do we go from here?" Tessa asked.

"Well, each time there was a reason we were sent, some evil we had to stop or some good we had to do." Angela said.

"So we have to do some good before we leave?" MacBeth grumbled.

"Well, we did help out that clan" Demona said with disgust, "I can't believe that, humans and gargoyles living together, having kids together, what's next?"

To Brooklyn, this seemed like something perfectly normal for Demona to say. Angela, Xanatos and especially MacBeth threw her a look. She just responded by giving MacBeth a dirty look, to which MacBeth had to hide a smirk.

When they finished eating, they decided to head out, figuring if there was still something Avalon wanted them to do there, she could sent them right back.

As the fog cleared, Enoch interrupted the silence, "Where do you suppose we are now?"

They all looked up, no one had ever seen a place like that. Half of the group had all been all over the world but never had they seen a city like this, even if a cold soft rain was falling to blur the view. There were buildings of a style they had never seen, and the cars looked sleeker and faster then they had seen before. There we also hover crafts all over with traffics control on the ground and above as well.

Since they were all gargoyles except Xanatos and MacBeth, they took flight at the first opportunity they had, Brooklyn carrying Xanatos and Enoch carrying MacBeth. One thing the group found curious was that on the elevated subway had what looked like handles on the roof of some of the cars. From a distance they realized why, they saw a couple of gargoyles, who were hanging on the handles let go and catch the wind in their wings as they took flight. Curious to learn more about how these gargoyles lived in cooperation with this strange, unfamiliar community, they followed the gargoyles.

They followed them to a tall silver building with a large scrolling marque below a digital clock. The travelers thought it odd that the gargoyles didn't seem to notice that they were being followed. As they landed on a landing of the tall building the other gargoyles turned around and gasped, as if expecting them to be someone they weren't.

"Who are you?" Asked a short green bald female gargoyle.

"We're travelers." Xanatos said bluntly.

"We were wondering about how you get along so well with your community?" Angela tried to start friendly conversation before someone else messed it up.

"We have for probably a hundred years or so now" said the green gargoyle shyly.

"Who is it Danielle?" asked a purple male gargoyle as he came out onto the landing.

"Um, uh, travelers." said Danielle.

"Well, don't be rude then," he said, "invite them in, we're just starting lunch break."

The group followed the purple and green gargoyles into a room where two other gargoyles were sitting. They were all wearing some type of uniform.

"I'm Jared," introduced the purple gargoyle who had black hair, a long face and underarm wings, "this is Jessilyn" he pointed to a yellow female with white hair and a cat-like face, "you met Danielle," he motioned to the short green bald gargoyle, "and this," he pointed to a pale red-orange with a prominent jaw "is Brooklyn." The travelers all simultaneously raised exactly one eyebrow.

"Hey, so am I," Brooklyn extended a hand in his extra cheerful way. The rest of the 'travelers' introduced themselves as well.

"So we're in America?" Tessa asked in her Welsh accent, "ye all have, sorta, America accents?"

"But where in America looks like this place?" Xanatos asked.

"You mean you travelers don't know where you've traveled to?" Asked Jessilyn.

"Eh, we were sent here by Avalon, a magical island."

"Avalon, sounds familiar," said Danielle.

"So, does your society and the human society mingle?" Enoch asked.

"Yeah." Jared answered as if it was a dumb question.

"Well, we do still have prejudice against us," Jessilyn pointed out to Jared as she offered some donuts to the new comers. "I think it was a century ago or so that we couldn't walk out on to the street without people thinking we were some kind of monsters or something."

"How did they start to finally accept you?" Angela asked excited.

"Why would you want to work with them?" Grunted Demona.

Brooklyn the non-traveler suddenly looked offended. Jessilyn added, "why wouldn't we? I mean, we live with them...if we didn't want to work with them we'd probably have to go live by ourselves, if you know what I mean."

"But if they treat you like a ravage animal!" Demona growled.

"No they don't" Brooklyn the other defended, "we have rights too."

"You do in this society?" MacBeth asked, "Where we come from they havena even decided whether to give gargoyles citizenship or not."

"Human government, always thinking the world belongs to them," Demona grumbled.

"Well," said shy Danielle, "We all in here have a little human in ourselves though."

The group turned and stared at her. There was a pause and each stranger tried to interpret the other. "So...faes have given ye compatibility too?" MacBeth broke the silence.

"Uh, we've always been able to have children between our species." replied Jared.

"No we haven't" interrupted a new voice. A Caucasian human female with long black hair came in with a couple of grocery bags containing milk and plastic cups. She had a long coat on and obviously just came in from the spring rain. She sat the milk down on the table and grabbed a donut as she sat down.

"This is Xelda Wan," said Jared, "she works part-time here at the police station as well as teaches history, so she knows more than we do."

"Is that what this place is, a police station?" Brooklyn interrupted, looking around the cozy break room and the uniforms.

"Our species didn't start interbreeding until about a hundred and fifty years ago," said Xelda continued with a mouthful of donut, "It wasn't until after they realized that we were compatible that the government was forced to give gargoyles citizenship."

"So now gargoyles live like humans?" Demona sneered at the human.

Xelda glared back, "and what is gargoyles life like? If you don't mind my asking."

"We're free and not restricted by human laws."

"And what is so different about human laws than gargoyle laws?"

"Well, for one thing we wouldn't be discriminated against."

"Well, why do you think the president wanted a couple of part gargoyles to be apart of congress?"

The travelers jaws dropped with confusion.

"We better get back to work guys." Jared broke the silence.

"Well, why don't I show these guys to my grandmother's place and then meet you guys down on Broadway?" Xelda said. Angela perked. They all stood up to leave and the travelers followed Xelda who followed the other gargoyles out onto the landing. Xelda then took off the coat to reveal wings and a thin tail. She leaped to the edge of the landing and took flight, the travelers followed.

They flew through the cold misty rain for a while when Brooklyn suddenly caught a draft upwards.

"What is it?" Angela yelled after him.

"I'm seeing something."

It was hard for the others to hear what they were saying but it was something like, "it can't be, can it?"

As they flew through the extremely tall, strange buildings they came to a building that was a bit taller than the others and defiantly the most elaborate. Xelda glided to the top where they all settle onto an ancient-looking building that rested on top of the elaborate one.

"What!" Demona half yelled, "Castle Wyvern?"

"Yes, Castle Wyvern" Xelda said firmly.

"I don't understand..." said Enoch.

"This is New York, isn't it?" Angela said.

"Like..." Brooklyn didn't really want to be the one to suggest it but did anyway, "is this the future?"

"Yes," Xelda said smartly, "around 150 by my guess."

"You knew?" asked MacBeth.

"I am a history teacher, I'm not stupid, I know that there is nowhere in America that has gargoyles that didn't know about the gargoyle laws. In 150 years you're not even going to have pockets of ignorant people like you in West Virginia!" (author's note, I'm from WV, so no offense intended )

"But..." said Demona.

"And I know my genealogy, I know two of my own close ancestors when I see them." She looked directly at Brooklyn, "and" then she looked directly at Xanatos. A little white haired kid with underarm wings came wadling out.

"Mummba" he mumbled.

Xelda picked him up and said, "Xack, I want you to meet your great great grandfathers."

The sun started to come up so a few other gargoyles came out.

"Do you all live here?" Asked Tessa.

Xelda laughed, "oh no. There's a good sized clan that's related to us out in Chicago. Brooklyn and Jessilyn live several miles north and so on."

Brooklyn said, "How did you get to be so many out of so few? Wouldn't you have to...inbreed?"

Xelda laughed again. "Well, I can't say none of us have the same ancestor twice but somewhere down the line a rule came about that we were not allowed to date our first cousin."

There was silence for a little while as the sun rose. Brooklyn, Enoch, Tessa and Angela turned to stone while Demona turned human. When she was done transforming, Demona and MacBeth turned to look at what Xanatos was staring at. Several of the gargoyles were walking back indoors, leaving some stone friends behind. Xelda, who still had wings and a small tail, put her son down to let him follow the others.

"Well, I need to catch up with the others." Xelda said.

"Wait, the other's didn't turn to stone either?" Demona asked amazed.

"They're part human, why would they?" And Xelda took off.

The human trio blinked for a several minutes as they watched Xelda disappear into the low rising sun.

"Right..." Xanatos interrupted the silence, "I'm going to see what they've done with the place." As he walked toward the castle, Demona and MacBeth continued to blink as they thought about what they were going to until the gargoyles woke up. Suddenly their attention was drawn when Xanatos exclaimed, "Owen!"

Demona and MacBeth turned around to see Owen Burnett exactly how they remembered him, stone fist, red tie and all, coming out of the doorway Xanatos was just going to go into.

"Mr. Xanatos!" He replied just as astonished. "Oh yes, Avalon journey, right? You told me about this." He stuck out his hand, "give me the oldest penny you can find, for your grandaughter."

David laughed and started going through his wallet.

"So how many part gargoyles are there living here?" MacBeth asked the fae.

"Here?" He asked, "well, in New York there's probably a good thirty or forty. A group moved out to Chicago some years back. There's a good sized group that is part of the U.S. special forces in the war."

"War?" Asked Demona.

"It's a human war for the most part, don't worry about it." Was all Owen said.

"What can you tell us about these half humans/half gargoyles?" MacBeth asked.

"Well, your children..." Owen motioned toward Demona and MacBeth.

"How did you..." Demona interrupted.

"Pardon me, ma'am but you can't keep a second gargoyle clan in New York secret for 150 years." Demona acknowledged that he had a point.

"We can move away from New York?" Demona suggested to MacBeth.

"And have our son grow up as the only gargoyle his age in town?" MacBeth rebutted. "We'll discuss this later."

Owen moved on, "The more gargoyle they have in their blood the more gargoyle strength they have and the longer they live and the opposite is true. The more human they are, the more humanlike hours of sleep are needed but if they are very gargoyle they need a lot of sleep to keep up energy for that strength." he explained, "So energy and strength are inversely related."

"Hmm," Demona said after Owen was done with his explanation. "Maybe I'll give myself a call..."

"Don't call yourself." Owen told her.

"Why not?" based on a scene in _Life, the Universe and Everything_ by Douglas Adams

"Nothing ever gets accomplished when one calls oneself." Owen picked up an invisible phone and dialed on an invisible keypad.

"Hello, Demona? This is Demona, please don't hang up." Owen looked at his invisible phone and put it back on it's invisible hook. "She hung up."

So Demona and MacBeth decided not to look themselves up and decided to hang out in the mansion the rest of the time because they had lived enough 150 years that another one did not mean a whole lot to them.

Their new destination was not only familiar to Angela, but also to Demona and MacBeth.

Angela stepped out onto the sandy shore and breathed in the desert air. "Ah, Egypt."

As the group followed Demona to the colony of Egyptian gargoyles she and MacBeth had met before (but she tried not to mention that they were together at the time), they came across a tent of, apparently, archeological work.

"Hello!" Xanatos greeted the humans, joined by MacBeth. The Gargoyles stayed out of sight.

"Ah, jolly good evenin' to ya!" Called the elderly man. With him was an older woman and a younger woman.

"I'm kind of lost," David said, "I don't suppose you have any way for me to charge my cellphone?"

The elderly woman laughed, "no, sorry, and the nearest town is not for miles. You're welcome to spend the day with us, but we won't be going to town until the day after tomorrow."

"Thank you," David smiled, "David Xanatos." He offered his hand, "And my colleague is MacBeth."

"Dr. Norman Shepherd," the old man accepted handshakes from both men. "This is my wife Delores, and my daughter Anna."

"If you dohn mind my asking, why are ye working at night?" MacBeth asked after Delores offered them some water.

"For one thing it's cooler!" Anna said.

"So we can meet the gargoyles!" Norman said. Xanatos and MacBeth exchanged looks.

"Can't you study gargoyles just the same during the day?" Xanatos asked.

"No, live ones!" Anna said excited.

"And we don't study them," Delores said, "we study with them."

"You work with real gargoyles?" David questioned.

"Here comes Reh'Teh now!" Anna pointed at the sky.

As the green jackal-headed gargoyle landed, the archeologists greeted him in ancient Egyptian. They spoke some before Norman turned to David.

"He says the others can come out of hiding." Norman translated. With that, the others revealed themselves.

"So ye study gargoyles, or gargoyle history?" MacBeth asked with eager interest. As the group moved toward the homes the gargoyles have made.

"And Egyptian history," Delores said perkily. "Come, meet the clan."

The group of humans and gargoyles moved to the cave network that housed the Egyptian clan. Inside, Demona greeted Nebulan, and the other gargoyles she had met before. MacBeth was surprised to see another familiar face.

"Arthur!" The former English king turned and shook hands with the former Scottish king. MacBeth asked, "What are ye doing here?"

"Well, Griff and I stopped by and helped them with a fairy that was giving them trouble." Arthur told the Scot who nodded in understanding. "We were going to head out when, well, Griff didn't really want to leave." Arthur motion MacBeth to where Griff was. The green English gargoyle was very nervously talking to a cute, blue, hawk-headed, Egyptian gargoyle.

"Her name is Qebeh'hiel," Arthur responded, half rolling his eyes, and MacBeth laughed.

As the two men caught up, the young human woman, Anna, greeted one of the gargoyles, a golden bald gargoyle, with a kiss. Xanatos approached the couple with a question, "You two aren't… by chance, trying to have children?"

The gargoyle and human blushed, "Not yet," said Anna, "But Nebulan said she could help Her'rur and me if we wanted to."

"Nebulan?" Xanatos asked. The couple motioned to the Arabic looking gargoyle. He asked her, "You're a fae?"

"I was once, but most of my powers have been stripped." She responded.

"But are you working with the Wyrd Sisters?" She nodded in response to his question.

While the traveling group mingled, they noticed that the Egyptians seemed to be loading up on iron weapons and iron armor.

"What's going on?" Angela asked.

"A battle is coming," Nebulan answered mystically.

The traveling group followed suit. They began putting on armor as well. Some of the weaker, older or younger gargoyles stayed behind with human scientists to defend their home. The traveling group moved out with the bulk of the Egyptian gargoyles to the open desert in preparation for battle.

Demona turned to Nebulan, "How do you know there's going to be an attack?"

"We have spies among the anti-gargoyle group." Nebulan responded, "Unfortunately, I'm afraid that they are ready to move from trying to scare the gargoyle away to actually eliminating them."

"Why the drastic move?" MacBeth asked, "I thought that they weren't allowed…"

"It's…" Nebulan hesitated, looking guilty, "It's partially our fault. At first they bent the rules and attacked the gargoyles. We responded with bending the rules and allowing compatibility. So they are moving to the next step." She hung her head.

Demona gave out an angry grunt, to which the fae-gargoyle defended, "That's why we're trying to help. But our sources say this is the first group they are going to try to eliminate."

"Well, we're not going to let that happen," Demona said in defense of her fellow gargoyles.

There was a calm before the storm. The gargoyles waited on the top of a desert dune, ready to take flight with their iron weapons. Nebulan waited with the humans, Xanatos, MacBeth and Arthur with spells ready to be cast.

The first move was made. The sand below them reached up and started to surround MacBeth, Demona, Brooklyn, and the golden gargoyle, Her'rur, who was Anna's husband. Demona was able to leap up and blast the base of the sand formation before it was able to over take her. She then flew down and blasted the base of the formation engulfing Brooklyn, trying to help free him. As the other gargoyles freed their fellow Egyptian, and Arthur and David helped to free MacBeth, the wave of faes moved in. There were a lot of them. There was the Egyptian and Hindu fae that MacBeth had seen at the debates, there was also the skinny feminine fae and many others, of all shapes and sizes. They fired blasts at the Egyptian clan, who responded with their iron weapons and spells. Griff flew down and picked up Arthur, who used the magic of Excalibur to attack the faes. Once Demona had Brooklyn free of the sand, she threw him the end of an iron chain, and like other gargoyles, tried to capture as many of the magical entities as possible.

As the number of enemy faes started to dwindle, so did the gargoyle group's iron chain count. Enoch, Angela and Tessa threw iron weapons at the fairies, weakening them, while, from the ground, MacBeth and Xanatos tried to only hit Faes with their energy weapons and not their gargoyle allies.

Just when the battle looked to be going their way, the allies discovered that their attack was only just the first wave. Out of the desert sand, a second wave of glowing faes lit up the night sky with their magical blasts. They started knocking gargoyles out of the sky. Magical spells successfully captured MacBeth, Demona, Brooklyn and Her'rur. Arthur and Nebulan were unable to free them with the spells they could conjure.

Arthur found himself left on the ground again as Griff fell out of the battle to try to catch his injured would-be girlfriend. Other gargoyles were falling back or making heroic attempts to take the faes down with them. As their numbers dwindled, suddenly Nebulan yelled, "Forget the rules! We need help! We can't let this go on!"

David, who was on the ground with her and King Arthur, looked to find who she was yelling at. Out of the sand on their side of the battle, rose several magical creatures whose goal was to blast the other faes, not the gargoyles. Among these faes could be seen all four of the Wyrd Sisters, as well as the teenage and wizard looking faes they had seen at the debates.

While faes like the Sisters moved to the front of the battle, a few faes flew down to help some of the fallen gargoyles, and to free the captured mix-breeders.

As the enemy fairies saw that they were being beaten back, another wave of enemy faes appeared. The humans on the ground just watched and wondered where so many magical creatures could have come from. What was probably the last waves of both sides emerged into the battle, probably recruiting anyone from Avalon that could no longer just sit back and watch bursted into the battle. The light show was incredible. Now all of the gargoyles were on the ground, helpless against a battle of such scale, and watched the magic above them like the 4th of July.

Finally, a flash of light, brighter than all of the other, shot up in the middle of the battle like a fountain, clear up into the sky. Out of the light stepped Titania and several assisting faes, like the more neutral of the debaters, and stopped both sides of the battle. At the wave of Titania's hand, all the magic stopped. Then with another wave of her hand, without saying a word, she motioned to both sides like a mother telling children to go to their rooms.

Another wave of her hand and the spells binding Demona, MacBeth, Brooklyn and Her'rur were released and she said to the travelers, "It's time for you to go home."

After saying their farewells to Arthur, Griff and the Egyptians, the Avalon group returned to their boat. It was fairly quiet among the bunch. Brooklyn eventually said softly to Demona, "Thanks." She turned to him with her usual evil glare, "thanks for helping free me and for helping in the battle." Her expression didn't change, but she did give a nod.

As the fog cleared and New York appeared, the group returned to the Eyrie Building (appearing more like how they left it), with Demona and MacBeth agreeing to go with them to explain the events to the others. As the group landed on at the Castle Wyvern, they were quickly greeted by loved ones. Xanatos immediately ran to see his family, Angela greeted her daughter and husband, and Brooklyn found Patch. The two months that they were gone showed as Patch was still carrying Brooklyn's twins. She explained to him that they figured she was never actually going to lay eggs since she was naturally human, she was as pregnant as you will ever see a gargoyle.

Angela rushed to go find Goliath and tell him everything, so Lexington and Liberty left to go find Elisa. Meanwhile Hudson and Broadway met Enoch and Tessa. Demona and MacBeth were starting to wonder why they were still there when Owen came out and started asking about the events that his magical brothers and sisters were involved in.

Angela had finally drug out her stubborn father, his attention was immediately drawn to his ex.

"Demona!" Golaith said. Demona just rolled her eyes.

"Hey!" Brooklyn stopped him, "She's on our side here." Everyone halted in their steps and stared at Brooklyn for a beat with this declaration.

"Yes, father," Angela said soothingly, "remember she's the reason we went to Avalon in the first place."

"I still don't understand why you two are working together," Goliath referred to Demona and MacBeth.

"Aye, as much as I hate to admit it," MacBeth said, "we need to work together here. I'm sure yer daughter here has mentioned some of the things we're up against."

Goliath nodded. They began to explain past events as Liberty and Lexington returned with Elisa. The poor woman looked like she was on the verge of tears, and her pregnancy was starting to show.

"Goliath… I-" she said softly. The others just waited quietly.

"Elisa…" The large purple gargoyle approached her, he touched his claw to her face, and then softly touched his hand to her belly. Elisa began to cry and Goliath smiled as he gently hugged her. He kissed her on the forehead before the two left to somewhere not public to talk.

"Wow." Demona broke the silence. The entire group turned to her in amazement, but she seemed to be the one that was the most amazed. The pointed to where Elisa and Goliath's reunion had taken place and said, looking at MacBeth, "That didn't bother me!"

MacBeth laughed out, "Are you saying that yer finally over him? It only took ye a millennia!" She rolled her eyes at him. Broadway looked at Brooklyn for an explanation, but he only shrugged.

The discussion lasted for a long time, with the traveling group explaining to Hudson, Broadway, Lexington, Liberty, Patch and Owen about the fae civil war. Demona eventually took off, leaving with the understanding of a truce. MacBeth left a little while later (so as to not arise suspicion), but he stopped to look at cribs before returning home.


End file.
